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A Locapour Thanksgiving

November 26, 2009 by MTB

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

Each year since moving to Connecticut, I’ve made the trek down to New Jersey to spend Thanksgiving with my cousins, the Garlicks. Under normal circumstances (i.e. the drive home in the evening), the trip takes just over two hours. Driving down on Thanksgiving morning, though, is like “traveling through another dimension… you’ve just entered the Twilight Zone.”

The first year, 2007, my friend and occasional wine trail buddy, Maree Prendergast, also joined us for Thanksgiving, so my first stop was Jersey City where she lives. The drive down the Merritt Parkway in Connecticut was both lovely and a breeze, until I hit the Bronx and the parkway became a parking lot. After 45 minutes of almost total inertia, I decided it was time to move – and by this point didn’t really care which direction I headed in. So I hopped off the parkway and made my way over to the Queensboro Bridge, figuring crosstown traffic on Thanksgiving afternoon couldn’t be that bad. Whoops – forgot there was that little thing called the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade (which in my defense had finished hours before), forcing me and everyone else in Manhattan to head downtown and cut across the impossibly narrow streets of the Village and Soho to that traffic nightmare more commonly known as the Holland Tunnel.

Needless to say, we were several hours late…

Last year, 2008, Maree skipped Thanksgiving at the Garlicks in favor of spending the holiday with her parents who were visiting from Sydney, Australia, so I decided to cut across Connecticut and drop down into New Jersey from the north – thus avoiding Manhattan altogether. Great plan until I hit a 15-mile backup caused by an accident on the Tappan Zee Bridge, forcing me to detour down to I95 and that traffic nightmare more commonly known as the George Washington Bridge.

Needless to say, I was several hours late…

This year, I informed my cousin Andrew before Easter not to expect me for Thanksgiving. Instead, I’m spending the day close to home with my friends David & Deirdre, their three kids, and the various and sundry people that come for the weekend or just wander in off the street. In some ways David & Deirdre remind me of my own family – they collect people, all kinds of people, and have the most interesting dinner table conversations. I anticipate a lively Thanksgiving and a 20 minute commute.

I called Deirdre several weeks ago to ask her what I could bring. We actually have a bit of a routine: if one is hosting dinner the other calls and says “what can I bring,” only to be answered with “nothing… except maybe a bottle of wine.” But this being Thanksgiving, and Deirdre now having three children (the youngest born a scant 2 1/2 months ago), I figured if I nagged her every few days like one of her children (what can I bring, what can I bring, what can I bring…) she would break down and tell me something – anything – to get me to stop calling her.

It appears her children broke her first, because I had barely gotten the words out of my mouth when she laughed and said “I was just going to ask if you’d mind bringing dessert?” I just about fell off my chair. Good thing I wasn’t asking just to be polite. :) We settled on my bringing a Cranberry Upside Down Cake and a Chocolate-Espresso Volcano Cake, which when joined by the Deirdre’s pumpkin bread pudding and David’s childhood favorite strawberry and pretzel dessert will make a nice dessert buffet for the roughly 20 people coming for Thanksgiving.

And what better to go with a dessert buffet than a selection of local dessert wines, especially if they are seasonal wines that evoke that lusciousness of Thanksgiving? So along with the desserts, I’m pulling a few bottles of Connecticut wines from the cellar:

Digrazia Autumn Spice I can only describe this as “pumpkin pie in a glass.” White wine fermented with sugar pumpkins, honey and spices (including nutmeg and cinnamon). Yum!

Land of Nod Chocolate-Raspberry Wine I first tasted this in August of ’07, just before it was released and loved it so much I went back and bought a case last Thanksgiving to share with friends (and hoard for myself). Not too sweet and the chocolate and the raspberry are perfectly balanced.

And to round out the mix, I’ll bring a more traditional dessert wine, but am still trying to choose between Hopkins Vineyard’s Night Owl, a lovely late-harvest Vidal Blanc, and their Ice Wine, one of the best non-Niagara region/non-German Ice Wines I’ve found. Decisions, decisions…

Of course I can always have the one I didn’t choose chilling at home for a late-night Thanksgiving toast in front of the fire…

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DiGrazia Vineyards – The Speciality Wines

March 3, 2009 by Kevin

Marguerite Barrett

Contributing Writer

After a brief detour to celebrate Open That Bottle Night, we return to DiGrazia Vineyards and the final category of wines on their wine list: The Specialty Wines.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, DiGrazia separates their wine list into two categories: Table Wines and Specialty Wines. There are 10 wines under the Specialty category, ranging from sweet fruit wines to fortified wines such as Ports and dessert wines with brandy. Because a tasting includes only 6 wines, Christy and I shared our tastings and between us sampled 6 of the 10 wines in this category:

Yankee Frost Described in the Tasting Notes as a “sweet Vignoles,” this is a smooth, sweet wine with an interesting blend of fruit. The nose is very subtle, no one single note really pops. The wine is also nicely balanced; we certainly detected notes of fruits and berries, but everything was so well blended that you aren’t struck by any particular note.

White Magnolia (White Port) This is a very interesting wine; the tasting notes describe it as a “rare example of this Portuguese inspired classic wine.” I must admit it was the first time I’d come across a white port. It has a beautiful nose – rich and deep, with lovely soft notes of pear. The wine is also smooth with notes of pear, and the brandy adds a richness and depth that would be lacking if this were just a fruit wine. Because it’s a white, the port is lighter than what one typically finds in a Port, but no less complex for that. I really liked this and starred it as one of my favorites.

Winterberry A fortified wine, but not a Port – the Winterberry is a “blend of white grape, raspberry, honey and Citrus brandy” according to the tasting notes. I found the wine to be very sweet, with strong notes of raspberry in both the nose and in the mouth. The brandy makes it richer, but it was still a bit too sweet for my taste.

Wild Blue One of Dr. DiGrazia’s passions is the links between wine and health, and a number of the DiGrazia wines are high in anti-oxidants. Wild Blue is the shining star in this category. This wine has 6,000+ phenols per ml, by far the highest of any wine produced in the US. The wine itself is a brandy-fortified blueberry wine. A very sweet wine, the blueberry is quite strong in both the nose and in the mouth, and the color is that lovely blue-red you often get from blueberries. Fans of fruit wines will definitely like this wine.

Signature Blacksmith Port Another one of my favorites from DiGrazia. This is a smooth, rich, and fruity port with notes of cherry. According to the tasting notes, it is “aged in smaller barrels” and is a limited release “available only at the winery.” The most expensive of the DiGrazia wines at $40, if you like Port, it’s definitely worth a visit and a tasting.

Autumn Spice This was a great choice to end the tasting – a fascinating wine, I can only describe it as pumpkin pie in a glass. “White grapes fermented with sugar pumpkin, hoey and spices,” it is glorious. The first thing you notice about the wine is the color – a gorgeous deep amber. Then there’s the nose – strong, but not overpowering – rich, layered, deep and smooth. There are strong notes of nutmeg and cinnamon and subtler notes of the pumpkin and honey. In the mouth, the flavors are nicely balanced, and while you can certainly detect the notes, not one registers as a definite keynote. It really is pumpkin in a glass – a very decadent wine.

Unfortunately that concluded our DiGrazia tasting. We spent a bit more time with Dr. DiGrazia talking about the wines, and left with a promise to connect again soon to start a new series for Vino Verve on Wine and Health. Look for details on that soon!

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DiGrazia Vineyards – The Reds

February 25, 2009 by MTB

Marguerite Barrett

Contributing Writer

DiGrazia Vineyards has three reds in their table wine category: Newbury, Fieldstone Reserve and Paragran. As with the Whites, we decided to share our tastings, sampling two of the three:

Fieldstone Reserve This was my Red selection. A dry red with notes of Cherry and other fruits (the tasting notes indicate Black Currant), this is a medium-bodied wine. The color is beautiful – a deep ruby red, and the nose is strong, earthy and oaky. It has that nice smoky tang that you get from strong oak. The wine itself is very dry and earthy despite the notes of fruit. It’s a young wine, and I suspect will be very nice if left to age for a year or two.

Paragran This was Christy’s red selection. We were both really intrigued by the description of the wine in the tasting notes: “A deliciously unique blend of Pomegranate and Pear” – from which the name is derived. Just the idea of a pomegranate wine seemed unusual. The nose is very smooth, and the fruit notes are subtle. I guess I was expecting the pomegranate to be more overpowering, because I was pleasantly surprised to find the nose was so subtle. It’s a beautiful nose. The wine itself is sweet, and you can really taste the pomegranate. It’s a nice blend, with the pomegranate and the pear blending nicely. It’s listed on DiGrazia’s website under the category “Dessert Wines,” and as sweet as it is, I can certainly see that.

From there, we took a short break, rinsed out our glasses and turned our attention to DiGrazia’s “Specialty Wines.”

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DiGrazia Vineyards ~ The Whites

February 23, 2009 by MTB

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

DiGrazia produces three white and three blush wines in their “Table Wine” category. Since our combined tastings only covered twelve of the nineteen wines on the tasting menu, we decided to do a representative sampling from each category; so Christy and I settled on two whites and two blushes:

Winner’s Cup Made from Vidal Blanc grapes, this is a dry white table wine; the tasting notes indicate this is DiGrazia’s “driest style of white wine.” The color is a pale yellow, the nose is dry, but aromatic, with notes of oak. The taste is crisp, mellow and full-bodied – and not too oakey. Overall, a very nice white table wine, and one that I starred as one of my favorites on the menu.

Wind Ridge A Seyval Blanc, the tasting notes describe it as a “semi-dry white.” The nose has has subtle notes of apple, and there is a slight sweetness in the mouth that come from the notes of apple, which also give the wine a nice crispness, particularly at the finish. Despite the slight sweetness, this is a dry wine, and would pair well with a variety of foods.

Honey Blush The tasting notes indicate this is a “semi-dry honey-grape wine.” I found it rather sweet – but I do tend to prefer dry wines and so often find wines sweeter than others do. There are strong honey notes in both the nose and the taste, which are really nice. Also, keeping with Dr. DiGrazia’s interest in wine and health, the Honey Blush is one of the non-sulfite wines produced at the winery.

Williams Sonnet A blush wine, this one has strong notes of berry fruits, particularly raspberry. It’s a lighter wine, sweet, but not cloyingly so, and would be a wonderful summer wine.

In addition to the wine, I also found myself charmed by the wine labels – all are unique and attempt to evoke the spirit of both wine and place. Two of my favorites were the Williams Sonnet and the Wind Ridge labels.

Wine Labels from DiGrazia Vineyards.

Next up – The Reds…

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DiGrazia Vineyards

February 21, 2009 by MTB

Marguerite Barrett
Contributing Writer

After lunch, we headed north out of Newtown to Brookfield, CT and the DiGrazia Vineyards. The vineyards were first planted in 1978 and encompass about 45 acres.

DiGrazia grows French hybrid grape varietals, adapted to withstand the colder New England climate. (Source: CT Wine Trail). The winery opened in 1984 with the production of four wines. Since then, DiGrazia has thrived and the wine list has grown to 19 wines, 10 of which are specialty wines.

Nestled in the woody hills of the southern Litchfield Hills, DiGrazia is an easy drive off of I-84, the main E/W highway through Connecticut. The winery and tasting room are on top of a small hill, and as you come up the drive, you’ll find a large open area near the parking area with tables and chairs – a great place to relax in the summer, enjoying the wine and the views.

There’s also a charming patio right outside the front door with a stone floor, water fountain and a trellis with grape vines overhead. Both Christy and I loved the space, and Christy got a number of comments from friends who wanted to come and hang out on the patio with us after viewing her trip pictures on her Facebook page.

The tasting room is also charming – a large open room with a slightly-L-shaped bar along the back wall, the panelling and decor make it a very cozy and inviting space. On the Sunday we stopped by, the winemaker, Paul DiGrazia, was there and not only welcomed us but stayed to chat while we worked

through the wines on the tasting menu.

In addition to being a winemaker, DiGrazia is also a doctor – and one of his passions is wine and health. He brings this passion and specialized knowledge to his winemaking and among his wines you’ll find non-sulfite wines as well as wines rich in anti-oxidants, including his Wild Blue blueberry wine which has the highest anti-oxidant levels of any wine on the market – and he has the government test results to prove it! As a result of our conversation that afternoon, Dr. DiGrazia expressed interest in producing a series for Vino Verve on Wine and Health – details coming soon.

A tasting at DiGrazia includes 6 wines – which you pick from among the 19 wines on their wine list. In the Table Wine category, DiGrazia produces 6 Whites/Blushes and 3 Reds. There are 10 wines in the Speciality Wines category, which encompass fruit wines, port wines, and other fortified wines. Christy and I decided to cover as much ground as possible, so between us we chose 12 wines (6 each) and shared each other’s tastings.

First up – the Table Wines…

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A Locapour Thanksgiving

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